


Early Days

by mechanonymouse



Category: Rivers of London - Ben Aaronovitch
Genre: Gen, Pre-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-04
Updated: 2017-10-04
Packaged: 2019-01-09 03:26:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 816
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12267912
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mechanonymouse/pseuds/mechanonymouse
Summary: Pre-canon Molly and Nightingale interactions inspired by Foxglove Summer.





	Early Days

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Prinzenhasserin](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Prinzenhasserin/gifts).



The first time Thomas met Molly was just after he graduated Casterbrook.Like all the newly qualified Practitioners he was called to interview for his new position at the Folly. It was a Wednesday, oddly cold for August and the smog hadn’t lifted by the time he arrived at 11am.

 

She served him tea in silence while Master Langley bestowed backhanded compliments on him, her presence a test of his nerves. He jumped, the skin on the back of his neck prickling but she wasn’t a danger to him in folly and he was left curious about why she was there other than to test the courage of new graduates. His nerves suitably tested he was bound for foreign services after a period of training at the Folly.

 

He found himself spending far more time with her that he had expected. The other new Practitioners would start when ever she was near going out of their way to avoid her. Even some of the older visiting Masters were visibly scared of her. After that first encounter though Thomas couldn’t find it in himself to be scared so he quickly became used to her presence, the only one of the maids to ever clean his room, the person serving him tea most often, a friendly face when he dripped back in after three days chasing a misbehaving nymph.

 

Molly came to the Folly too young for service, according to her file, but old enough for the Masters to turn a blind eye rather than try to find an appropriate home for her. She’d worked at the Folly ever since quickly becoming a test for the suitability of young Practitioners for field work. She never acted on her nature and was scared to leave the Folly.

 

Thomas knew, from the well thumbed appearance of her file and the way some of his fellow Practitioners flinched when she was near, he wasn’t the first person curious about her origins or why she was here but unlike his fellows what he had read didn’t engender fear but a curious sense of pity stifled by the certain knowledge she could kill him before he could cast if she wanted too.  It made him remember his manners for her no matter how hard his day, to acknowledge her assistance with a smile and thank you even when he was covered in mud and manure after a twenty hour day.

 

He slowly became aware that he was the person who was closest to Molly, he would have expected her to have friendships or at least a sense of camaraderie with the other serving girls but they shied from her worse than the greenest Practitioner. The Housekeeper and Butler seemed to have some affection for her. Thomas had suffered a very uncomfortable but oblique conversation with Mr Harting that left him clear that if Nightingale showed any sign of getting Molly in trouble and not taking responsibility the last thing Thomas saw would be Mr Harting’s face as Thomas’s cutthroat razor slit his throat. Of the Practitioners only Master Langley seemed to be as comfortable with her as Thomas was and Master Langley was ailing. 

 

She was aware faster than any but Master Langley of a threat to the Folly and prepared like only the Practitioners and Mr Harting to defend the Folly. Thomas found it hard to accept her service after standing side by side, cleaver in her hand and staff in his while the senior masters fought for the sanctity of the Folly. 

 

Then he spent five weeks in the Alps tracking a particularly powerful ogre. Three of his party killed or injured and himself brought in as a favour to the Swiss when they had already lost five in the pursuit.He had been unable to sleep since he split with the party at Bergün, footsore and weary he arrived in to London off the Dover train. Molly greeted him at the door, her eyes smiling. She took his bags and bundled him up to his room, she didn’t stop to listen to his need to see Master Langley, she was turning down the sheets before he got his third objection out. His pyjamas warm and freshly pressed hanging over the screen. He gave up when she pressed him behind the screen to reveal a basin of warm water and his favourite soap sat on the vanity.

 

He was feeling a lot better after his wash and debating finding if he had clean suit when Molly came back with a tray of tea. She bundled him in to the bed showing her surprising strength and tucked him in before giving him his tea and log book. He fell asleep his log book on his lap, tea mug nearly drained to the sound of Molly unpacking his case and tutting feeling safe like he hadn’t since Klaus had been attacked on watch.


End file.
